Workplace Hazards for Meat and Poultry Workers

Scholars explore line speed and worker safety regulations governing meatpacking and poultry plants.

"The Department of Agriculture’s decision to revoke some pig slaughterhouses’ line speed limits will cause environmental harm, Dani Replogle of Food and Water Watch and Delcianna L. Winders of Vermont Law and Graduate School argue in an article in the Environmental Law Review. Replogle and Winders explain that the agency finalized a rule in 2019 permitting 40 slaughterhouses to operate without speed limits. They emphasize that the agency did so without considering the rule’s potential environmental impacts. The authors contend that faster line speeds will increase water use and pollution and affect vulnerable communities disproportionately. They recommend that President Biden introduce a policy in line with the Green New Deal that would impose more stringent controls on slaughterhouses’ environmental impacts."

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